Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Whether or not you have ever wanted to become a performing strongman, there are certainly things that we do that are beneficial to all strength trainees and anyone else involved in physical culture. Today, I would like to offer you some exercises that are sure to increase the health, strength, and endurance of your lower arms and hands. If you take things to the next level, you will develop the strength to be able to roll up a Teflon coated frying pan into the likeness of a metal burrito!

When it comes to
rolling frying pans, you have need of two very important tools: a pair of
strong, healthy, tough hands! We will
begin with an exercise that will serve to strengthen and toughen the entire
lower arm:.

Exercise #1 -
Wrist Roller

Our first exercise will be a variation of the wrist roller
exercise. The type of wrist roller I
recommend for this would be the type that can be mounted on a power rack. Using this type of wrist roller will enable
you to utilize heavy weights without negatively impacting your Deltoids /
shoulders. I use the one that can be
purchased from Ironmind (www.ironmind.com). The reasons I like their wrist roller
include: 1) It is hollow, enabling it to be mounted on my power rack safety
pins, 2) It has very heavy knurling, which bites into the hand and builds
toughness in the skin of your palms.
(See picture at this link: Wrist Roller)

NOTES:

1)I
recommend doing this exercise for four to five sets of one rep, one time per
week. One rep is equal to bringing the
weight attached to the device from the floor to just below shoulder level, then
back down to the floor again.

2) This wrist roller should be used in
conjunction with weights loaded onto a loading pin

3)Exercise
both hands. Concentrate on trying to
bring the strength of your non-dominant hand in line with your other hand.

4) I recommend doing this exercise on a
non-lifting day so that your grip is not compromised before doing compound
barbell, dumbbell, or odd-object movements.

6)I would
suggest making a goal to eventually work up to using 75-100 lbs (30-45 kg) for
your top set in this exercise.

The wrist roller
exercise will be performed in a manner that closely mimics the movements used
in rolling a frying pan. This variation
of the exercise works one hand at a time, rather than both at the same time. Set the height of the wrist roller in your
power rack at or slightly below shoulder level.
The rope wrapped around the middle of the roller should be attached to a
loading pin with weights loaded onto it.
Place your right hand on the top of the roller using a thumbless grip
(your thumb will be on the same side of the roller as your fingers). Your left hand will act as a brake, holding
the weight in place each time you need to reset your right hand at the end of
each rotation forward. Move the weight
up by moving your right hand forward and away from your body, resetting your
hand whenever you have moved the weight as far forward as you can. Repeat this process until the weight stack is
as far as it can go. On my setup, the
top of the loading pin would be touching the bottom of the wrist roller. Now begin moving back down, repeating the
entire process in reverse. Each movement
bringing the weight stack all the way up and back down again equals one rep for
one hand. You will now work your left
hand using the same process, and your right hand now acts as your brake. One rep for both hands equals one set. Start light with 10-25 lbs (4.5 - 11kg),
adding weight each successive set until you have completed 4-5 sets total.

Doing this exercise alone will strengthen the muscles and connective
tissues of the entire lower arm, including the forearm, wrist, and hand. It will also serve as a means of toughening
the skin of your palms, which is needed when performing any of the feats of
strength practiced by performing strongmen.
As listed above in the notes, I recommend doing this exercise on
non-lifting days, once per week, for 4-5 sets.

As stated
earlier, being able to perform these types of feats requires the availability
of two strong, healthy, tough hands.
While the wrist roller will definitely contribute to the strength and
toughness of your hands, it will do anything for their health. What I mean is, your hands take a beating
with this type of training. To keep them
in the game, something must be done to ensure their recovery ability is not
compromised. My second exercise will
actually be a super set of sorts, working both the crushing and extending
muscles of your hands,

Exercise #2 -
Hand Gripper + Band

Once again, this
exercise was suggested to me by the Grandmaster, Dennis Rogers. He pointed out that I needed to work my hands
everyday in order to promote quality blood-flow in the hands. He told me to get a set of hand grippers and
knock-out 100 reps per day, seven days per week, three-hundred sixty five days
a year. Thankfully, I took his
advice. After a few months, I remembered someone else
suggesting the importance of working the extensors, so I added in 100-125 reps of band extensions with
the fingers, Both the grippers and the
rubber bands can be purchased from Ironmind, Amazon, or any number of other
retailers. Since I do not train in the
mornings, I try to get my “Daily 100” knocked out in the morning. I perform the finger extensions first, as
they do not take as much time or effort as the grippers. If you wish to progress with the rubber
bands, you may do so by moving up to a thicker band.

1)Do
not “over do” things. Start with a band you can knock out 100 reps with fairly
easily. Blood flow is more important
than how many bands you can open with your fingers.

2) See this as a means of building longevity into
your hands. Keep them healthy and
youthful.

The philosophy
behind using the hand gripper should be the same as what we have discussed in
regards to the band. Be sensible with
the strength of gripper you choose. Make
sure you buy one that you can get 100 reps with. When I say 100 reps, I do not mean to say
that you buy a plastic hand gripper that you can easily close 100 times in a
row, I am talking about using something
that is challenging enough to make you break your daily gripper routine into
5-10 sets. You can do this in sets of 5,
10, 15, 25, etc. so long as you get 100 reps per day. I also suggest buying several grippers so
that you can use a more challenging gripper in some of your daily sets. Some days you will be able to use your more
challenging gripper, while some days you will not (such as the day after a
tough lifting session).

Besides
improving your lower arm recovery ability, this one-two combination will
actually lessen the impact of the bumps, bruises, and dings we all encounter
after years of hard, heavy training,
While this “daily 100” superset is great for anyone, it is essential for
those lifters 35 and older. Age
thirty-five + is the time you begin feeling your mistakes and accidents over
the years. It is at this time in life
that you must begin taking preventative care of your body, so that you will be
able to keep living a healthy, active lifestyle well into your golden years.

On another note,
I can also report to you personally that these exercises, more than any others,
have directly contributed to the size and strength increases I ave experienced
over the last couple of years. As a
matter of fact, I have noticed that when making videos lately, I can see for
myself that my lower arms have noticeably changed for the good. They also hurt less, and as stated above,
recover much quicker than in the past.

I hope by now
that you are able to see that I am not just trying to fill space for a
deadline, but I am giving you proven exercises that DO work and WILL lead to
success in improving lower arm and hand strength, as well as giving you the
ability to roll frying pans with your bare hands. They will give you the strength and toughness
required to turn frying pans into metal burritos.

If you watch carefully
and follow the exercises I have listed above, you will become much of a man (or
woman) among men, and you too, can begin traveling down the road that leads to
strength that few can even dream of.
Continue down this road and maybe, you too can become a performing
strongman. I will finish this article by giving you a link to a video that
shows what these exercises can do for you.

Does modern bodybuilding make you sick? You should write for Natural Strength! I always need good articles about drug-free weight training. It only has to be at least a page and nothing fancy. Just write it strong and truthful with passion! Send your articles directly to me: bobwhelan@naturalstrength.com

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